This is the last place I ever thought I would be.

Sitting here, notes spread out everywhere, face illuminated by candlelight, hunched over a notebook with bags under my eyes…God, I must look like my father.

Then there's where I am. I managed to snag myself an apartment before all the buildings were taken. Most homes were desecrated, so suddenly the world was homeless. People can get desperate you know. I've heard stories about people that have killed for a roof over their heads.

Of course there's also who I'm with. Zim.

I found him. I caught him. I won. I still hated him though.

It was sometime during The Impact. He was sprawled in a pile of rubble like a rag doll, limp and unmoving. So I; a stupid, bloodstained fourteen-year-old, scooped him up and ran. Of course, I had to tinker with his pack a little. Just enough so that he couldn't hurt me. Enough so that he would still be alive. He wasn't going to die yet. Of course, when he discovered it, he was extremely angry. Said I'd killed it.

I remember it was a great feeling. I knew that he needed it. I was destroying all he had left in this world.

It didn't feel good. It felt wonderful.

It's been five years since then. I'm nineteen and Zim…God, I don't know how old he is. It's been a long time though.

The first few years were hard. It was difficult to adjust to the world. Everything was gone. There were no homes, just shelters. There weren't any skools either, but I seriously doubt if Miss Bitters would be dead. She was such an old hag.

I must have done all right if I can still laugh about stupid things like this. Or maybe it means I'm losing it even faster.

Anyway, things were hard. My house and family were destroyed and I had mixed feelings about it. After all, my dad thought I was the freak of the family. The one who would amount to nothing. He had never cared about Gaz or me. He just locked himself away in his lab all day. I have no idea just what it was he did either. As though SuperToast was a real scientific discovery. Pfft.

Then again…he was my dad.

Gaz hated me, but it was the same thing. She was my sister, and the only one who ever bothered to hang around me.

They had died and I could have saved them…I could have done something. I even had a gun with me. I could have fought back for them. I didn't though. I watched them die. Then I laughed as rain poured down my face.

In those first few years, I thought about that a lot. It was one of the only things on my mind. Whenever it got to be too much, I would turn to Zim.

Zim. Zim in his little cage, always stubbornly gripping the bars. He still had some hope left in him after all. I could see fear though, buried in those ruby eyes. Fear for me. That fear was mine and mine alone.

I never hit him. In my mind it was always my father, or Gaz, or some other kid from skool, or some skeptic that had called me insane that was beneath that yardstick. I would hit and hit and hit until I could see the blood clearly in my mind. That's when I would realize it was Zim's and not anyone else's.

I suppose I blamed him. I blamed him for things he had caused and things that were beyond his control and things that he would never ever know. However, there was no one else to blame. Everyone else was gone. I made sure he knew he was at fault. I didn't know how or why, but I just knew he had something to do with this madness. I even remember vaguely screaming at him in a blinding fury, while smacking his fingers as hard as I could with my death ruler.

" It's your fault…It's your fault! You did this! YOU DID ALL OF THIS!"

Smack.

" It's your fault!"

Smack.

" IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

Smack.

" IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

I could feel it twisting and burning inside me, ready to tear me apart. I was never exactly sure what 'it' was. Maybe it was rage. Maybe it was insanity. That seemed most likely.

It bothered me. It bothered me so much I let Zim out of his cage. He wouldn't leave anyway. He couldn't. Just to make sure I was still in charge, I slipped a collar on him. He put up quite a fight over that one, I remember.

I had to force my self to not strangle him, to not hurt him as I had. Mental abuse was still constant, but it always had been, ever since we'd first met. It was strange though, really living with Zim. It was strange having someone around that actually wanted to look at his research and didn't mind talking with the freak once in a while. So eventually the collar was abandoned as well.

One of the things I had been researching was the effects of the new gravity on Earth. Or at least on Zim anyway. He'd become much taller than he'd been before. Even when I was fourteen he had still been the same size as when I first met him, but he'd grown like a bean since then. I even had to give him some of my old clothes, even though he always drowned in them. Any T-shirt of mine could have been a dress on him.

The only other really big thing about the new atmosphere is the rain. It rains almost daily for one reason or another. The sky is always overshadowed by a mushroom cloud memory of years ago. I haven't seen the sun in ages.

" Why does it always rain?" Zim sneered out the window one day, " I'm surprised your Earthian water-poison doesn't kill you all."

" Something's gotta wash the dirt off the street," I said, looking down on the filthy street.

" Funny, I thought that was your job." Zim smirked. He hadn't lost all of his pride and confidence yet.

" No, but it used to be," I sighed, " After all, how many years did I chase you? Three? Four?"

" Very funny."

" I thought so."

" So what are you supposed to do now?" He asked me out of the blue, " You haven't been doing any of that paranormal research…"

" It's not paranormal if it's common knowledge." I said coolly.

" You know what I mean, Dib." He looked me in the eyes.

I only glanced at him, " Do you know what happens to children's dreams?"

" Dreams?" He questioned me.

" I've heard somewhere that dreams are put in a box to be admired forever. That's a lie." I smirked, " My dreams were ripped brutally away and thrown in an ocean somewhere."

" Interesting…" Zim mused, as though it was familiar somehow, though I can't imagine where. Either that or he was mocking me.

We stood there for several moments, watching the sorrow of the world rain down and flood the rats. Even from the fourth story, we watched the demons scurry to find shelter from the tears of a world they would never know.

" You know Zim…" I said, " Humans tend to associate rain with sadness and despair."

" I tend to associate it to pain." He said in a serious tone.

" Hm…that seems fitting too." I agreed, looking out the window again.

Zim's arrogance had toned down greatly since I'd first met him. That blinding arrogance that clouded his mind from ever succeeding was gone. Somewhere in my mind, I knew that was my fault, but I always forced that thought back down.

It's funny. After all these years, aliens were a constant. Everyone knew aliens existed. The world was turned backwards and upside down. All the people that doubted him were gone. Some days it seemed like everyone was gone. That the entire world was gone and it was just us. Just me and Zim.

It was a strange thought I had, with mixed emotions. We hated each other. At this point though, there was no one else. Anyone else that had ever mattered was gone.

Everyone except Zim. Zim was still here.

It wasn't really a bad thought either. That was the weirdest part.

…Maybe I'm just tired. It seems I've been constantly weary since all of this began. There was lots of work to be done after all, whether it was keeping Earth safe from invasion, or trying to rebuild what was lost. I have to wonder why anyone would want it the way it was though. Put simply, it sucked before. …I guess it sort of sucks more now though.

It makes me wonder why I ever bothered to try and save it. Why I still do. Perhaps I was just afraid of things getting worse?

I don't know…it's one of the only things that keeps me going. That and Zim. I feel almost mechanical sometimes, doing the same thing day after day running on the fuel left behind by sinners.

That's all we can do really. We get by with the mundane same-old same-old that lasts forever. Rampant attacks from races we've never even heard of before keep us from rebuilding important things like a new government and economics.

Our life is a post-apocalyptic hell full of rats and sinners and fallen angels that will never rise.

(A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews last time! The next chapter should be coming soon, I promise. Please R&R. )